The Kings’ penalty kill, a strength all year, becomes a weakness in mitigating loss to the Oilers

O Kings-Oilers NHL Playoff Series it should be decided by the most elementary of confrontations: the unstoppable force versus the immovable object. In this case, Edmonton’s powerful power play against the Kings‘ mortal penalty to kill.

But in Monday’s Game 1, the Kings’ penalty kill produced only self-inflicted wounds, allowing the Oilers to score three times in a 7-4 victory in Edmonton this was not as close as the final score would indicate.

“It just shot us in the foot,” defenseman Drew Doughty said after the Kings stopped the Oilers just once on four power play opportunities. “They’re so good on the power play. So let’s become smarter in this area.”

It’s not like the Kings didn’t see this coming. As Doughty admitted after Monday’s debacle, the team “talked a lot about their power play before this series.”

See more information: Kings appear uninspired in loss to Edmonton Oilers in Game 1

And with good reason. Edmonton scored on more than 26% of its man-advantage opportunities during the regular season, the best percentage in the Western Conference and fourth-best in the NHL.

But the Kings allowed just 39 power play goals, third-fewest in the league; his kill percentage of 84.6% is second in the NHL. However, all of that meant nothing in Game 1, with the Kings’ penalty kill allowing as many goals in a 20-minute span of the second and third periods as in the last nine regular season games combined.

“Two things that were and are our strong points are penalties and eliminating rush chances. That’s what we do well,” Kings coach Jim Hiller he said. “And we didn’t do any of that well tonight.

“That’s the obvious. I think everyone saw that. We will have to fix this.”

The Kings have a lot of catching up to do after seeing Zach Hyman score a hat trick, while Connor McDavid and defenseman Evan Bouchard combined for nine assists. Leon Draisaitl also had a goal and an assist, both on powerful plays.

The Kings got second-period goals from Mikey Anderson and Adrian Kempe and garbage-time goals from Pierre-Luc Dubois and Trevor Moore in the final four minutes, long after the outcome had been decided.

Still, aside from the Oilers’ power play goals, the teams are tied after three periods. That’s why Hiller’s advice to his team heading into the series was simple: stay out of the penalty box.

“It’s every team’s message, I’m sure,” he said. “We don’t want to put them in the power game. But when they get on the power play, we want to make sure we continue to do a good job like we did in the regular season.”

Instead, the Kings returned to the form they showed over the last two seasons, when their penalty kill ranked in the bottom third of the league – something the Oilers took advantage of, scoring power-play goals in 11 of their previous 13 playoff games with the Kings. , winning both series in the first round.

This year, the Kings should have the special teams advantage. According to long-standing hockey wisdom, if a team’s success, percentage-wise, in both penalties and power play scoring adds up to more than 100, that team’s special teams are… well, special.

The Kings’ regular season total was 107.2, slightly better than the Oilers.

“It’s something that can make a difference over the course of a game, over the course of a series,” Anderson said. “We lost the battle in the last two years. Now it’s a new challenge, a new beginning for us and a new beginning for them.

“Obviously, there are many other factors involved in this. But at this time of year it’s difficult to score five against five. Teams are monitoring very closely. So it all comes down to special teams, who can capitalize, who can keep the puck out of the net.”

On Monday, those special teams belonged to the Oilers, who scored on three of four power play chances and killed their only two penalties.

“We just couldn’t stop their power play tonight for whatever reason,” Hiller said. “That makes everything very difficult. Once they get that kind of leadership, you get discouraged and it goes a long way back.”

Edmonton was simply too quick and skilled for the Kings. McDavid was unstoppable, with his line – which had Adam Henrique on one wing and Hyman on the other – combining for four goals and seven assists.

See more information: Why Kings vs. Oilers is one of the truly great rivalries in the NHL

“He’s probably the best skateboarder in the world,” Kempe said of McDavid.

“We have to be better on the PK,” he added. “We eliminated some of those penalties and didn’t let them [75%] on the power play, I think it’s a more balanced game.”

Hiller promised his team would use its strengths – which include the penalty kill – in Game 2 on Wednesday. He really has no choice, because in Game 1 the only victims of the Kings penalty were the Kings.

“These are things that can be fixed for us,” Hiller said. “That’s really the point. We can fix these things; we generally do this well.

If they don’t, the Kings’ immovable object could be looking for another early exit from the playoffs.

This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.